Friction-clutch.



Patented 000.v l0, |000. f

A. DE DION &. G. BOUTON.

FRlCTIDN CLUTCH.

(Application filed Aug. 14, 1900.)

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(N0 Model.)

UNITED STATES "ATENT frutos.

ALBERT DE DION AND GEORGES BOUTON, OF PUTEAUX, FRANCE.

FRICTION-CLUTCH.

SPECIFICATION forming' part of `Letters Patent No. 664,038, dated December 18, 1900. Application filed August 14, 1900. Serial No. 26,898. (No model.)

To all wiz/071e it may concern:

Be it known that we, ALBERT DE DION and GEORGES BOUTON, engineers', citizens of the French Republic, residing at Puteaux, Seine, France, (our post-office address being 24 Quai National, Puteaux,) have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Friction- Clutches, vof which the following is a speciication.

This invent-ion relates to certain new and useful improvements in clutches of the class described in our previous Letters Patent No. 645,312, dated March 1 3, 1900, in which segments fixed on the driving-shaft are caused to rub against the inner surface of sleeves rotating freely on the said shaft; and it consists in novel combination and arrangements of parts hereinafter more speciically described for recovering the wear produced by the friction between these surfaces.

In the annexed drawings, Figure 1 isa vertical section through the axis of the mechanism. Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the same.

The transmission -shaft a, to which the movement of the driving-shaft b is to be transmitted, is hollow, and on this shaft revolve freely two sleeves c d, on which are fixed, respectively, the toothed wheels ef, gearing, respectively, with the pinions g and h, keyed on the driving-shaft b. These sleeves c d may be caused to rotate conjointly with the shaft a by means of the arrangement of a pair of segments (only one shown, Fig. 1) and the segments la l, Fig. 2, which slide on shoulders m n, provided on the middle part of the hollow transmission-shaft a. The separating movement of the said segments t or lc and Z is eected by turning on opposite'directions to each other the pinions 0 and p or q and fr, the axles of which are screw-threaded in opposite directions and engage in corre.

sponding screwthreaded parts of the segments. As described in our previous patent, No. 645,312, the rotation of these pinions was produced by means of a cylindrical rod provided with a double row of teeth, forming a double rack, sliding in the hollow shaft and gearing with the said pinions. According to the present invention the. double rack is replaced by a cylindrical rod s, having two screw-threads tu arranged in opposite directions of each other, the shape or transverse section of these threads being the same as the teeth of a rack gearing with the pinions op q fr.. The cylindrical rod s is provided with two diametrically opposite grooves o, in which engage screws w, the purpose of which is to prevent any angular displacement of the double-screwed rod s and to permit of a longitudinal sliding only. The function of the said rod s is therefore the same as that of a rack, but with considerable advantages with regard to the frequent regulating or wearrecovering operations required by the rapid wear of the rubbing-surfaces of the segments and the sleeves. ln order to recover this wear-say to approach the segments near the sleeves-it is necessary to rotate t-he pinions op q r in suitable direction. With the double rack as hitherto constructed this regulating operation could only be effected by taking out the'rack, and therefore disconnecting some parts of the mechanism. A very great `difficulty by effecting this operation results from this requirement that all the pinions need to be turned with the same angular quantity in order to prevent any shrinking and badposition of the segments on their slides. The new rack having the form of a double screw avoids all these inconveniences and considerably simplifies the regulating operation, which will only require to release the screws w, engaging the grooves o, and then to turn the rod s in a suitable direction.- It will be easily understood that this rotary movement is communicated to the pinions and to their screw-threaded axles, which cause the segments to be drawn from the sleeves. It will be evident that the amount of the rotation of the rod s must be exactly half arevolntion or a multiple of half a revolution, so that the points y z and the junc- IOO Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention and the manner in which the same may be performed, we declare that what we claim is- The combination with a hollow shaft, Sleeves suitably connected thereon, pinions fast on said sleeves and operated by a driveshaft, segments suitably arranged in said sleeves and two pairs of vertically-alim ng pinions for operating said segments, of a longitudinally-moving rod having a pair of diametrieally opposite grooves and further provided with two series of screw-threads for operating the two pair of alining pinions ALBERT DE DION. GEORGES BOUTON.

Witnesses:

EDWARD P. MACLEAN, EMILE KLOTE. 

